More Lib Hysteria: ‘Global Warming’ Could Cause Diabetes

However, a basic rule of research is the following:
Correlation does not prove causation

For example, if you ask 1,000 people with chronic back pain if they prefer brushing their teeth with Crest or with Colgate, and you then determine that 95% of them prefer Colgate, you have a very strong correlation.

However, can you then conclude that brushing one’s teeth with Colgate causes chronic back pain?

The media is touting a new study claiming global warming could be, at least in part, to blame for the “diabetes epidemic” sweeping the globe.

“When it gets warmer, there is higher incidence of diabetes,” Lisanne Blauw, a Ph.D. candidate at the Netherlands-based Einthoven Laboratory and the study’s lead author, told The Huffington Post Tuesday.

“It’s important to realize global warming has further effects on our health, not only on the climate,” Blauw said….

Sounds terrifying, until you get into the data. Blauw and her colleagues even state that causality between temperature and diabetes can’t be drawn from their meta-analysis….

On a more basic level, though, Blauw’s meta-analysis masks a confounding phenomenon. Many states actually showed a decrease in diabetes incidence rate as temperatures rose.

How can warm weather cause more incidents diabetes in South Carolina, but fewer in Louisiana?….

Here’s a more scientific statement, no research needed. More warm days should result in more ice cream eaten. Except warmer days usually leads to more salads eaten. Oh forget data, eat ice cream and blame global warming.